Roar
by sol invictus
Summary: Cody has been carrying a heavy secret for years and it's starting to wear him down. He's strong but a new friend might be his Kryptonite.
1. Chapter 1

"What'd you do to get called down there already?" Zack asked after the intercom had requested his brother's presence in the office. "We've only been in school for like three minutes." Zack finished taking off his coat and stuffed it haphazardly in his locker before digging for the books he'd need for his first few classes.

"I have no idea. Did you blame me for anything before we left yesterday?" Cody took an extra second to hang his jacket properly on the metal hook and straighten the sleeves.

"Umm...I don't think I did."

"Then I have no idea what they want. Want to come with me and find out?"

"Not a chance," Zack laughed. "I've spent enough time in there already this month. I don't want to spend an extra second in that place so I'll catch you in either homeroom or at lunch." He slammed the steel door and spun the lock before sketching his brother a half-hearted salute and headed for the nearby classroom door.

Cody finished swapping books and folders and shut the locker door before making his way to the office, curious as to why he was summoned. He was as certain as he could possibly be that he hadn't done anything to be in trouble over and he believed Zack as much as he possibly could when he said he hadn't gotten him in any trouble so he was perplexed. He walked against the tide of students heading to their various rooms and slipped into the stairwell and skipped down the steps.

"Can I help you?" the elderly woman behind the counter asked when he stepped into the office a few moments later. Her voice was as rough as gravel and she smelled like cheap cigarettes. He unconsciously took a half step backwards.

"I'm Cody Martin. I was called down here," he answered. The old crone squinted at him through her foot-thick glasses and seemed to be deciding if he would taste better baked or broiled when he was saved.

"There he is," a much more pleasant voice said and Cody turned to his left to see his councilor coming out of a hallway with a steaming mug of coffee. "Just the young man I was looking for."

"Good morning, Mrs. Tanner," Cody said with a smile. In his experience, all of the women but one in the office were ancient, blue-haired child-hating ogres and Mrs. Tanner was that lone exception.

"Come with me, Cody," she told him, waving her free hand back toward her office. "This won't take long." Cody stepped behind the counter, giving the older woman a wide berth, and followed his councilor down the hallway.

"I'm not in trouble, am I? Did Zack do something?" he asked as he caught up with her.

"No, you're not in trouble at all and, as far as I know, Zack isn't either. Not yet, at least."

"There's still plenty of time left in the day, Mrs. Tanner. School hasn't even officially started yet," Cody laughed.

"That is true," Mrs. Tanner said, doing her best to cover a grin with her mug. She pushed her door open and stepped inside her office, gesturing for Cody to take one of the seats across from her desk. He saw a backpack and a red coat piled in the first chair so he chose the empty one next to it. He settled in and looked at her expectantly.

"Relax, Cody, please," she told him and Cody allowed himself to loosen his rigid posture slightly. "I called you down here because I have a situation that I believe you are uniquely suited to solve. You see, we have a new student starting with us this morning and I was hoping you'd not mind letting him shadow you for a few days until he gets his feet under himself."

"Of course, Mrs. Tanner," he said instantly.

"I didn't think you'd mind." She spun her chair to the side and pulled a sheet of paper from the printer and handed it to Cody. "His schedule is the same as yours except for his foreign language. He's taking Spanish while you're in French."

"It might as well be exactly the same," Cody said as he looked the paper over. "His Spanish class is across the hall from my French class."

The councilor pulled her glasses down from the top of her head and looked at the room numbers. "So it is. No chance of him getting lost at all now, is there?"

"No ma'am, not unless he already is. Where is he?" Cody looked over at the other chair and its items.

"He stepped out to see a man about a horse."

Cody gave her a very questioning look. "I'm sorry?"

"He had to use the restroom," she explained and Cody nodded sheepishly. "Ah, and here he is now. Cody Martin, may I introduce Chase Mitchell. Cody swiveled in his chair as a dark haired boy about his height with square glasses walked into the room.

"Nice to meet you, Cody," the boy said and held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, too," Cody replied, a bit surprised that someone his age actually knew how to shake hands instead of bumping fists. He felt his ears getting red as they shook hands and let go as the counselor began talking, glad to be facing her instead of the new boy and hoping neither noticed.

"Chase, Cody will be your guide for a few days as you learn to navigate the hallway wildlife and hazards of Thomas Jefferson Middle School." The woman's eyes had the glazed look of one who had seen many, many years of such wildlife.

"It's not really that bad," Cody offered. "Just stay out of the eighth graders' way."

"Sounds just like my old school," Chase said.

"Some things never change. That was the rule even back when I was in middle school a few years ago." Both boys smiled politely at her joke. "But I digress. I think the first part of Cody's tour should be to show you where your locker is so you can drop off your coat. I'll write you both a hall pass just in case."

Cody named off the important places as they passed them on their way upstairs to the lockers. "The cafeteria is right around this corner," he told Chase. "I'd recommend avoiding the meatloaf today unless you're starving and be sure to never eat the pizza even if you are starving. We're pretty sure it's just red-tinted glue with pencil shavings on cardboard."

"That sounds like my old school, too. I usually bring my lunch."

"Where was your old school?" Cody was curious and he couldn't place the boy's accent.

"Right outside of Denver."

"Wow, that's a big move. Did you like it out there? Here's your locker, by the way." Cody rapped on the metal door with a knuckle.

"The city was really awesome but the school wasn't." Chase pulled a slip of paper with his locker combination from a pocket and began twisting the dial.

"Bad teachers?"

"No, they were okay for the most part. You know how there's always that one kid at school that no one likes and gets picked on? That was me."

"That sucks, Chase. I just met you and I already think you're okay."

"Thanks. Maybe I'll have at least one friend here."

"Nah, you'll have at least two. My brother and I are like a set. You buy one, you get the other for free," Cody said with a small laugh.

"Does he go here, too?" Chase finally got the combination to work and popped the door open on his third try.

"Yep, we're twins."

"Oh yeah? That's cool. Are you two identical or the other kind?"

"Identical."

"Do the teachers ever get you guys confused?"

"It happened a lot back when we were younger but not very often these days. We're only in the same class about half the time now and we're really not even that identical anymore."

"Gotcha."

"What about you, Chase? Any brothers or sisters?" he asked to keep the boy talking. Hearing a voice that wasn't heavily Bostonized was refreshing.

"Nope, it's just me and my mom and dad. They wanted lots of kids but got stuck with just me instead." Chase closed his coat inside the locker and pulled his schedule out of his backpack and looked it over. Cody leaned in closer to double check the school's computers hadn't somehow managed to mess it up after all and smelled PopTarts. "Any teacher on here I should be scared of?" he asked as he ran his finger down the list of names.

"Maybe Mrs. Williams," Cody pointed to their algebra teacher. "She's okay most of the time but every now and then she seems to lose it a little and her inner angry dragon pops out. As long as you do your homework and don't fall asleep you should be fine, though."

"That won't be a problem because I actually like math," Chase admitted. His eyes darted around like he'd just uttered a dirty little secret. "I'm a nerd, I guess."

"I'm right there with you, Chase," Cody told him. "If you were to ask my brother, he'd tell you that I'm the king of all the nerds."

"Does he have any of these classes with us?" Chase looked down the paper again.

"Not until after lunch. You'll be stuck with him for the rest of the day after that but I get a break while you two are in Spanish."

Chase laughed. "Well, I guess we should get this day started. Which way is our first class?"

* * *

"So what was it this time, Cody? Did the principal need help opening his email again this morning?" Zack asked as Cody walked over to the table with Chase a few steps behind.

"No, not today. Mrs. Tanner called me down there because she wanted me to show a new student around." He stepped to the side and gestured. "Zack, this is Chase. Chase, my brother Zack."

"Hello," Chase said politely. He briefly considered trying to shake Zack's hand but the boy was too engrossed in devouring his lunch so he left his hands on his backpack's straps.

"Hey," Zack replied after he cut and swallowed a bite from a mysterious brown pile covered in ketchup. "I hope Cody hasn't been too boring for you. He likes to talk about things no one else knows about a lot so be careful." Cody rolled his eyes.

"He's been okay so far. I haven't fallen asleep on him yet."

"Yet," Zack laughed. "It'll happen."

"Anyway," Cody interrupted, "the lunch line is right over there, Chase. I need to get some milk." Chase needed a drink as well so they left their backpacks on the table and waded through the sea of students and chairs until they came to the end of the line.

"That was meatloaf on his plate, right? It kind of looked like what my mom makes sometimes."

"Yeah, that's what it's supposed to be."

"Didn't you say to not eat it?"

"I never do and most other people don't either, but those rules don't apply to Zack. He has a stainless steel stomach. I've seen him eat pizza that's been under his bed for a week and be perfectly fine."

"Wow. That's impressive and gross at the same time."

"You should try living with him." Cody shook his head as memories of some of Zack's zanier past antics flipped through his mind.

"I've always wanted a brother and then people go and say something like that and I'm not so sure any more."

"He's really not that bad. I give him crap, he gives me crap, it all balances out. If you told me I could trade him for a million dollars with no questions asked, I'd probably keep him ninety-nine times out of a hundred."

"And the last time?"

"I'd settle for five dollars."

"Nice," Chase laughed as he handed some change to the cashier for his juice.

The boys returned to the table and found Zack sitting in front of an empty tray with his hands crossed over his belly. "Full?" Cody asked as they sat down and unpacked their lunches.

"Until we get home."

Zack held court in the cafeteria like a little sixth grade king while they ate. Boys came and went, exchanging small talk and dirty jokes and girls walked slowly by to get a better look at the new kid. By the end of their lunch period, Chase felt as if he'd talked to half of the kids in their grade and been stared at by the other half.

"Is it always like that?" Chase asked as they gathered up their things and meandered their way to the door.

"All the people? Usually," Cody answered. "For some reason Zack's fairly popular."

"Yeah, I'm a pretty big deal," Zack joked and Cody only shook his head. "I'll tell you what though, Chase, by the way it looked to me, you can have your choice of the girls right now. The looks they were giving you...man...I wish I was the new kid in school again."

"They were? I didn't even notice," Chase glanced around the cafeteria.

"You better start noticing. The new kid shine wears off after a week or two," Zack told him and patted him on the back. "Strike like the iron is hot."

" _While_ the iron is hot," Cody corrected.

"Whatever. All I'm saying is that he needs to make his move before he waits too long and ends up like you."  
"Hey!"

"I'm just saying."

* * *

The boys' afternoon classes passed fairly quickly and their history teacher had just finished passing back the previous day's tests as the final bell rang. She rightly sensed danger and scurried back behind the desk and out harm's way as thirty students began to pack up and leave at once. Zack turned his paper over and groaned before folding it once and shoving it roughly into his backpack. He zipped it shut and was out of the room in seconds. Cody and Chase found him leaning against the painted cinder blocks outside the door. The look on his brother's face let Cody know instantly that Zack hadn't done well on the test.

"Not a word, Cody," Zack said as they approached.

"I already said it before so I won't tell you that you should have studied for it. I also won't mention that I offered to study _with_ you."

"Yeah, well...you know how it is. Video games get in the way sometimes." He shrugged and the trio did their best to move down the hallway through the crowd of bigger kids.

"How bad did you do?" Chase asked as they neared their lockers. "You didn't fail it, did you?"

"Nah, I didn't fail it. I didn't exactly ace it, either, but I got a 78."

"That's...not _too_ bad, I guess," Chase said awkwardly.

"That's what I always say but Mom and Cody seem to think otherwise." Zack shook his head and opened his locker. "Anyway, enough about school. Let's get out of here already." Zack pulled on his coat and slammed the door.

"We'll show you the way to where the buses load if you want, Chase. We walk, but it's on our way out."

"Yeah, that would be cool." He put most of the books he'd received that day into the locker and retrieved his coat and joined the waiting twins. They descended the switchback staircase and made their way to the double doors at the end of the hallway and their freedom. A frigid blast of air hit them as they stepped outside and even Zack momentarily considered going back in.

"Thanks for your help today, Cody. You too, Zack. I'd have gotten lost in there for sure without you guys." he rubbed his hands together and stuffed them deep in the pockets on his coat.

"No problem, Chase. We've been the new kids a few times so we know what it's like," Cody told him and Zack nodded in agreement. "I guess we'll see you tomorrow morning in homeroom if you come back."

"Yeah, I'll be here. This school doesn't seem too bad so far," the boy laughed as he waved and started off for the giant yellow bus. Cody watched him walk away and Zack waited patiently for a few seconds.

"So, can we go now? I'm pretty sure he can get on the right bus by himself. He's a big boy, Cody."

"Huh? Oh, right. I was just making sure."

"Like I said, he's a big boy. Now come on before we freeze to the sidewalk." They turned and began their walk home. Zack pulled a thick knit hat from inside his jacket and stuffed his head in it.

"So what do you think about Chase?" Cody asked after they had crossed the street and escaped school grounds for the day.

"He seems like a nice kid, I guess."

"That's it?"

"I don't really know him yet, do I?" Zack smirked. "He could be an axe murderer for all I know."

"Seriously?" Cody gave his brother a world class quizzically raised eyebrow.

"Maybe!"

"It's times like this that make me wonder why I talk to you."

"Think about it!" Zack threw his arms out and exclaimed. "His family moved more than halfway across the country, right? It might have been for his dad's job like he said or maybe, just maybe, they're trying to outrun the police and the massive amounts of evidence he left behind in Colorado or Montana or wherever he said he's from." Zack peeked at Cody's face and quickly looked away before a laugh could erupt.

"Where on earth do you come up with this stuff?" Cody asked after a few seconds. He gently shook his head and pondered what it would be like to have a normal brother.

"I have no idea. I'm just good, I guess."

"Yeah, that's not the word I would choose but we'll go with it."

"Seriously though, if he asks you to follow him deep into the forest to help chop down some firewood..." He let the ridiculous statement hang in the cold air.

"Zack..."

"Okay, okay. I'm done. All jokes aside, Chase does seem like a nice kid. A little weird, maybe, but nice."

"How's he weird?" Cody asked. He realized that Zack was almost surely baiting him again but he couldn't help himself.

"Simple. He started at a new school on a _Thursday._ Any normal kid would pretend he was sick to push his first day back until after the weekend."

"Some of us actually like school and don't mind going, you know."

"Oh, I know. And that, my dear Cody, is why you're weird, too." Zack slung an arm over Cody's shoulders in a brotherly _you know I'm just messing with you_ hug.

"So you think he's okay?"

"I told you that he seemed nice, didn't I?"

"Well, yeah, but you usually have a lot more to say about my friends than that."

"He's your friend already?"

"Um, well, I guess so. Maybe. Why? Did he say something?"

"No, calm down you dork. He didn't say anything."

"Oh."

"The more I think about it, he really didn't say anything today. Not much, anyway. He's like you but even quieter, if that's even possible."

"It was his first day at our school. Besides, we were in class most of the time you were with him except for lunch and you did most of the talking then," Cody reminded him.

"True. He seems like a good kid, Cody. It's almost like you two were made for each other. Now come on and let's get home already. I'm starting to lose feeling in my toes."

 _A/N: This the story I originally signed up to write and post forever ago but I never could figure out how I wanted to tell it. Nothing ever seemed to work and I've probably written and deleted somewhere around 100k words in my attempts to get it right over the years. I've finally settled on an outline I like and I figured I'd better get started before I find something wrong with it and change my mind again. I hope you enjoy it. -SI_


	2. Chapter 2

Cody was outwardly quiet as they walked the remaining few blocks to the Tipton but was a cacophony of noise on the inside. _What did Zack mean by that?_ his brain screamed as he heard his brother saying they were made for each other over and over in his head. Was it just a random offhanded statement or was there something else behind it? Did Zack suspect something? Cody's mind was a blur.

Hiding that part of himself was becoming harder and harder. He meticulously played back every bit of the day he could remember while he and Chase were around his brother. Did he say something that was slightly off? Did he let his gaze linger a bit too long on the new boy during class and Zack noticed? Was he just tilting at windmills? Cody sighed heavily as they stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for their floor.

"You okay?" Zack asked.

"Me? Oh, yeah, I'm good. Just thinking."

"I figured. Try to keep it down a little though. I can hear the gears in your head screeching."

"I'll try to keep it a little quieter," Cody replied, throwing a little smile on his face as the elevator lurched upwards.

Trying to keep it quiet was exactly what he'd been doing ever since he'd first noticed odd feelings showing up the previous years. He couldn't explain them, they just _were_. He buried them for as long and as best as he could but they always seemed to dig themselves out at the worst possible times. Today might have been one of those times but he wasn't sure. He snuck a look at his brother, trying to read Zack's face for any partially hidden signs but came away with nothing.

He sighed again but kept it quieter this time as he watched the numbers on the elevator's display light up in order. Somewhere between the fifteenth and sixteenth floors he miraculously gathered the courage and opened his mouth to ask Zack if he'd meant anything with the comment but the bravery left him just as quickly before he could say the first word.

 _Maybe Zack already knows,_ he thought to himself. _Or suspects and he just hasn't said anything yet for some reason._ Cody turned his head down and deeply studied the remnants of a stain on the elevator's carpet so Zack wouldn't see the frown on his face.

 _Or maybe he has no idea,_ another voice in his head argued a split second later. _He's not dumb but unless food or video games are involved, he can be pretty oblivious._ Cody looked up from the stain and glanced at his brother's face again and found it as impassive as he had before. Zack could be thinking about how much he wanted an ice cream sandwich or singing about Cody and Chase sitting in a tree in his head or a million other things. Cody sighed a third time. "Sorry."

"You sure you're okay, Cody?" Zack asked as the car settled on their floor with a slight jolt.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just feeling a bit weird all of a sudden."

"Like sick-weird?

"No, just Cody-weird," he replied as they walked down the hallway.

"So you're just normal, right?" Zack joked, checking the door and finding it locked before waiting for Cody to dig a key from his pocket.

"I wish," Cody said as he stuck his key in the lock and gave the knob a twist. He went into the suite first and missed the puzzled look Zack gave him.

Once inside, Cody headed directly for their bedroom and settled himself down on the bed after laying his backpack on the floor nearby. He listened to Zack in the kitchen rooting through the refrigerator and freezer as he tried to stop making mountains out of molehills in his mind. For some reason, though, the day's events kept popping back in and it was impossible to get his brain back in any sort of working order. Cody groaned and leaned back against the headboard. "This isn't how it's supposed to work,"he said weakly to himself.

Cody had planned his future out and chiseled it in stone when he was in the first grade. He would escape from whatever cesspool of a public high school he had to attend and then go off to a good college. He'd graduate with a degree and lots of letters added to his name. He'd land a good job and then start working on the wife, house, white picket fence, 2.4 kids, and the dog he was supposed to have as an average American guy.

"That is obviously not going to happen," he muttered to himself. He looked at his backpack for a long second before reaching down and snagging one of the straps. Maybe algebra could help slow his mind down. Algebra was nothing if not straightforward. There was only ever one answer and no grey areas. Cody flipped through the pages until he came to the night's assignment. He looked at the first few problems repeatedly and realized he had absolutely no chance of figuring out what _x_ was. He simply couldn't focus. Cody gently closed the book and laid it on his stomach as he laid straight out on his back and studied the whorls in the plaster above his head.

Zack finished creating his masterpiece in the kitchen and put the ingredients more or less back in their proper places. He picked up his massive bowl of different flavored ice cream and chocolate syrup and spun around to dig in the silverware drawer for a spoon when he glanced toward their room. Cody was laying on his bed with his hands behind his head and staring at the ceiling.

He couldn't remember ever seeing Cody do that before and it struck him as odd. Maybe his brother was actually feeling a little sick-weird after all. His fingers dug two spoons out instead of the usual one. "Just in case he wants some," Zack said to himself as he hip-checked the drawer closed.

"Mom is going to kill you," Cody said as his brother walked into the room with a mixing bowl loaded with ice cream.

"Well..." Zack said as he sat on the foot of Cody's bed and took a big bite, "the way I see it is that she's already probably going to kill me for my test grade and since she can only technically kill me once, unless I'm a zombie, of course, and that's a whole 'nother story, this ice cream is a freebie. Want some?" Zack offered his brother the spare spoon.

"No, thanks though."

"There's Rocky Road in there somewhere under all the chocolate." Zack poked around the mounds of ice cream. "Here it is. You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"Are you?" Zack made the extra utensil disappear before digging up another large chunk of deliciousness.

"Am I what?"

"Are you okay?"

Cody turned his head and looked at Zack as he shoveled in another massive spoonful of ice cream. There it was. Zack had just given him the opening to finally talk about the tornado of feelings he was going through with another person. The chance to unburden himself of the mental weight he was carrying was sitting a few feet away. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Zack studied his brother between bites. Cody wasn't quite Cody but he couldn't put his finger on the change. "You just seem a little different."

 _I am,_ Cody thought. "I'm just thinking about some problems and I don't know any of the answers," Cody told him, being both truthful and vague at the same time.

Zack looked at his brother thoughtfully for a moment. He sensed there was more to what Cody said than just the words, a whole hidden layer, but he couldn't see through it. "See, that's why I usually don't do my homework. I don't ever know any of the answers either and it's a waste of time," he finally said.

"You should try it every now and then, Zack. It's a nice feeling when you don't have to worry about Mom getting home and seeing your grades."

"Maybe, but I think the looming death thing is what makes this ice cream taste so fantastic." Zack savored another large spoonful. "It could be the last bowl I ever eat, you know. Like my last meal in prison or something."

"I guess," Cody said, adding a bemused shake of his head when he noticed a thin line of chocolate syrup snaking out from the corner of Zack's mouth. He pointed to it and Zack snaked his tongue out and got it.

"You're not going to melt down or anything if I go out and watch some cartoons and finish this, are you?"

"I think I'll be fine in a little while. Go watch your Sponge Bob." Zack shrugged his shoulders and left the room. Cody heard the television snap on and his brother's hearty laughter soon followed. He inhaled deeply and let it back out. He did it again and was surprised to find that he'd calmed down slightly. His head was still spinning but his brain had finally pumped the brakes and downshifted to third gear from fifth.

"Zack would have said something if he suspected anything," Cody said quietly to himself as he opened the math book again. "He couldn't help himself if he knew. He'd have to say something." Cody glanced out the door and saw Zack engaged in the cartoon and nodded to himself.

* * *

Cody's first coherent thought of the morning was _today's not going to be a repeat of yesterday, is it?_ as he remembered the turmoil of the previous afternoon. He'd been able to finish his homework but the unsettled feelings kept making their return as the night went on. Nine o'clock had barely come around and Cody had been absolutely exhausted from the day's mental roller coaster so he went to bed a bit earlier than normal.

 _No_ , _I think we're going to be fine. We're going to play it cool today. We're going to put our mask on like we always do and we'll be cool around Mom, cool around Zack, and definitely cool around Chase. I hope._ Cody dug himself out of the blankets enough to squint at the red numbers on the clock. Just after five, they told him, nearly a full hour before the alarm would go off.

He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep for a bit longer but he quickly found that wasn't an option. His mind was already wide awake even if the rest of his body hadn't received the message yet. "Get up, Cody," he said to himself as he shoved the blankets back and swung his legs out of the bed. A deep yawn interrupted him while he was choosing what to wear for the day and was followed by a pair of aftershocks. "Wake up, kid," he said to himself and shook his head. The thought _I wonder if Chase is awake yet?_ came out of nowhere as he grabbed fresh underwear.

"Of course he's not," Cody mumbled. "He's not the one nervous enough about screwing up to be awake at five in the morning." Clean clothes in hand, he left Zack's soft snores behind and passed his mother's closed door and her louder and meatier snores. He grinned to himself as he stepped into the bathroom and started the shower. He quickly disrobed and hopped into the gloriously warm water. All too soon he was as clean as he was going to get and he turned the water off.

He dressed quickly and wiped a hand across the mirror to clear a spot to fix his hair. Normally it was a very short affair but he found himself taking extra time to make sure every last hair was where it was supposed to be. "I want to make a good impression on Chase," he said to the accusing reflection in the mirror, "he wouldn't want to be friends with someone with a dead Wookiee on his head." His reflection was not impressed.

Once he was satisfied, Cody opened the door and set about his other morning rituals. He had eaten and was ready to go by the time he heard Zack's alarm go off and his brother stumbled into the living room in just his pajama pants.

"You morning people make me want to barf," Zack groggily told him as he fixed himself a bowl of cereal.

"We can't help it. You know what they say about us, Zack: the early bird gets the worm."

"That makes me want to barf even more. I'll settle for some Cap'n Crunch." Zack watched his brother bounce around the suite as he ate. The younger twin flitted from the kitchen to the living room to the bedroom to the bathroom mirror and back to the kitchen in a matter of seconds.

"You either drank a case of soda before I got up or you're back to your normal self, Cody," Zack told him.

"I think I'm back to normal."

"Uh huh," Zack said with a mouthful of cereal. "Now will you sit down for just a minute? You're making me nervous jumping around the house like that."

"I'm just ready for school, Zack," Cody explained. He sat down with Zack at the table and quickly started tapping his fingers on the wood. Zack put his free hand over his brother's and temporarily held the fingers still.

"No one is ever _that_ ready for school, Cody. Not even on a Friday." Zack watched Cody try to control his anxious energy as he finished breakfast. He got up to put the bowl in the dishwasher and it hit him. Chase. Cody was excited about seeing his new friend again today. He hid his grin as he closed the dishwasher and turned around. "I'm going to grab a shower and get ready. Try not to shake the room to pieces while I'm gone, okay?"

"I'll do my best."

Zack disappeared and Cody tried to busy himself by watching some early morning news. He'd made it through the first few stories before his eyes began glancing at the clock and the bathroom door. "Hurry up, Zack," he muttered. His brother finally came out wrapped in a towel and went back to their room to dress. He waited as long as he could before he popped up and went to the coat rack. Cody pulled his coat from its hook and slipped an arm in. "C'mon, Zack, let's go," he called as he worked on the zipper.

"Chill out, Cody. We've still got plenty of time," his brother informed him from the bedroom. "We could crawl there on our knees and still make it with time to spare."

Cody walked to their room and leaned against the door frame. Zack had just zipped up his jeans and bent down to tie his shoes. "I don't want to be late."

"Trust me, buddy, I know. You tell me every morning." Zack stood up and stretched and let out a very satisfied groan. He rubbed his eyes and took an exaggeratedly long look at the clock and then at Cody. "You know, it's usually ten minutes later than it is now when you start nagging me about leaving. Are you extra excited about spending seven hours in jail today?"

"It's hardly jail, Zack," Cody retorted but the anxiousness on his face was clear.

"No, it's not. The food in jail is probably better," he said with a yawn. Cody wanted to bring up how Zack inhaled his school lunch the day before but Zack kept talking as they left the bedroom. "You do realize that Chase's bus won't be there for another thirty-five minutes or so, right?"

"Huh?" Cody gasped.

"You might as well be made of glass, Cody. I can see right through you sometimes."

"What?" Alarm bells and sirens went off in Cody's head.

"That's why you're so ready to go to school today, right? Your new friend?"

"I don't know if he's my friend yet," Cody told Zack as he mentally stepped back from the brink.

"He is."

"How do you-"

"I just _know_ ," Zack interrupted. "I _also_ know that the bus he rides is one of the last few to get to school so I don't think we need to leave just yet." He pulled the heavy drapes back from the patio door and looked out. "Maybe if we wait long enough it won't be so cold."

"I don't think Mom would be happy if we waited until March to go to school," Cody said as he looked over Zack's shoulder at the cold, dark, outside world.

"No, probably not. But we don't need to leave this early, either."

Zack finally gave into Cody's nervousness and badgering, allowing himself to be pulled out the door three minutes earlier than normal. Less than a minute outside the warmth of the hotel, Zack realized they hadn't waited nearly long enough.

"You know, as much as buses smell, are slow, and are filled with annoying kids, I'd sure like to be on one right now." He shivered as he tried to wrap his arms even tighter around himself. "This is awful."

"This is Boston."

"Exactly! I still say Mom should have played hardball with Mr. Tipton and got a job singing at one of his hotels in The Bahamas or Jamaica or wherever else this kind of cold doesn't exist."

"Just think, Zack, winter doesn't even officially start for more than a month," Cody said with a grin.

"Oh, it officially started the day it went below sixty if you ask me. Now slow down a little, you're walking too fast and I'm trying to use you to block the wind."

The boys walked briskly through the cold, hands deep in jacket pockets. Cody's eyes scanned the side of each school bus that passed them and was always a bit disappointed when it wasn't the right number.

"How do you know when Chase's bus gets to school?" he asked during a lull in Zack's ongoing rant about the cold.

"Easy. One of my buddies rides that bus."

"You know his bus number?"

"Well I didn't _try_ to know it. I just do for some dumb reason. As much as you and Mom don't believe me, I do pay attention. It's just that I usually pay attention to things that don't matter," Zack admitted.

Ten minutes later, the boys were out of the cold and at their lockers. Cody slowly emptied and refilled his backpack at his locker with Zack beside him talking up a storm but Cody was only vaguely listening while he looked through the growing crowd of kids for Chase.

"Um, Cody? You've put the same book in your bag and taken it back out again three times now," Zack told him.

"I did?"

"Yes. Now relax! He'll be here. Darren just walked by a minute ago-"

"Who?"

"My friend on Chase's bus. So if he's here, chances are pretty good that Chase is too, so calm down already. Speak of the devil," Zack said pointing down the hall, "there he is now." The twins watched as Chase wove his way through the students and made his way over.

"Hey, guys" he said.

"Hey, Chase," Cody replied and hoped he didn't look as relieved as he felt.

"So now that he's here you don't have to call the National Guard and the police," Zack said and patted his brother on the shoulder.

"Huh?" Chase and Cody said simultaneously.

"Cody here was so worried you'd got lost on your way that he was thinking about making some calls and sending out search parties."

"No I wasn't!" Cody argued and gave his brother a scowl. "I was just... a little concerned that he might get lost trying to find his way up here. This school is pretty big, you know."

"I didn't mean to keep you waiting," Chase told Cody, "but I had to drop off some papers in the office this morning."

"Well you're here now and that means my brother won't worry himself to death. Not about you, at least. Other things? Probably."

Cody rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I think I'll be okay, Zack. Thanks." He glanced down at his watch. "We should probably get to homeroom now. You ready for the day, Chase?"

"One hundred percent," he replied as he stepped out of the way of a monstrously large boy in a football jacket.

"Morning, Tank," Cody said as the kid passed.

"Hey, little man," the behemoth answered and waved.

"You know him?"

"Yep, I help him with his French sometimes. Let's follow him and let him clear the way for us." Cody slid in behind the massive boy and Chase was right behind him.

"That's a pretty fitting name," Chase said as they surfed along in Tank's wake.

"His name is actually Oliver," Cody laughed. "He's just really big and strong."

"I'll say. We barely come up to his elbow. He could stomp us flat if he really wanted to."

"Nah, Tank wouldn't do that. He's a gentle giant."

"I'll take your word for it. Hey, where's Zack?" Chase asked as he realized the other brother wasn't with them when they reached their homeroom.

"Oh, he's out there playing social butterfly somewhere. He'll be here about five seconds before the bell rings." Cody was right on the money. Zack sauntered in and had barely taken a seat before the school day started.

"Miss me?" he asked as he leaned back.

"Not particularly, no," Cody replied, barely looking up from reviewing his homework.

"See how he is, Chase? He didn't miss his own brother. You might want to rethink having him as a friend," Zack said and let his eyes flick to his brother's face and then back to Chase. Cody's eyes followed and he waited for the boy's response.

"Nah," Chase laughed, "I think I'll keep him. He seems pretty okay." Cody smiled inwardly.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Zack told him with a shrug just before the morning announcements began blaring through the room's speaker.

The boys listened with varying degrees of attentiveness as information about the day's lunch and the night's football game assaulted their ears. Zack gave his brother a smug grin whenever they made eye contact during the announcements.

The tone releasing them from homeroom sounded and the students all stood up and started to file out the door. "See? I told you he was your friend," Zack whispered in his brother's ear as they walked up the aisle.

"Okay, you were right," Cody whispered back softly. He hid it well on the outside but inside he felt nothing but relief as the trio made it from the classroom into the hallway.

"I'll see you two kids at lunch," Zack said to Chase and Cody as he split off and turned down another corridor. He gave them a lazy wave as he turned and disappeared into the sea of bodies.


	3. Chapter 3

Zack was shaking with school spirit after the afternoon's pep rally was over and Cody and Chase gave him bemused looks as they walked from their lockers to freedom. "Oh man, we're going to absolutely _smash_ Jackson tonight," he said as he pumped a fist.

"Are we any good?" Chase asked as he looked between the brothers.

"Well...not really," Zack admitted. "But thankfully Jackson Middle is even worse than we are. They haven't won a game yet."

"We've only won one, by the way," Cody told his new friend as they walked down a flight of stairs.

"Are you a football guy, Chase?" Zack asked.

"A little, I guess. I went to a few Broncos games back home."

"I knew there was a reason I liked you. Also, I wouldn't admit that around here out loud. Patriots all the way here in Boston." Zack pretended to put a finger down his throat and retch. "Are you gonna go to the game tonight?"

"Maybe. I'd have to ask my mom and dad. Are you going, Cody?"

"I, uh...I hadn't thought about it. I'll go if you go."

"If you want, you can give me your number and I'll text you when I find out."

Cody and Chase exchanged numbers as they walked out the doors. Zack mumbled a particularly colorful word about the cold as a gust of wind momentarily took his breath away. The twins escorted Chase to the rows of buses and said their goodbyes. Cody paused for a second to make sure Chase got on the right bus but Zack tugged on his coat.

"He's got it. Let's go."

"I just want to make sure," Cody said as he craned his neck to see.

"If he has any problems he can call you. Now come on, I'm freezing." He gave another pull and Cody slipped in beside him.

"You do realize it's going to be even colder once the sun goes down and the game starts, don't you, Zack?" They picked up their pace as the bundled up crossing guard waved them on.

"Yeah, but after some cheese fries, hot chocolate, and big hits I won't even notice. You aren't going to chicken out, are you?"

"Nope. Like I said, if Chase goes, I'll go. That said, I wouldn't mind too terribly much if he can't," Cody said with a frosty grin.

* * *

"So should I be a little jealous that I've invited you to come with me to every football game so far this year and you've shot me down every single time but you're going to tonight's game because Chase asked?" Zack said once the boys were home and warming up.

"We don't know if he's going yet so we don't know if I'm going," Cody told him as he glanced down at his phone on the coffee table. He had just checked for any possible missed messages ten seconds ago and fought the urge to check again.

"I like how you totally sidestepped my question there, bro," Zack laughed as he sat on the couch beside Cody. He pulled a folded blanket from atop one of the back cushions and wrapped it around himself.

Cody's defensive instincts had kicked in and he chose his next words carefully. "As you may have noticed over the years," he said, "I don't really like football. However, I think it would be fun to hang out with my new friend tonight instead of studying."

"Having one of my toes sawed off with a plastic spoon would be more fun than that."

"Possibly," Cody admitted.

"Definitely." Cody shrugged as Zack continued. "You don't need a refresher on how the game works, do you? Just so you don't look like a dork in front of your friend?"

"Well, actually, there are a few things that you could clear up for me," Cody said as he picked his phone up and put it back down again after peeking at the screen. "Just so I don't look like a dork in front of Chase and all." Cody loaded his words with a heavy topping of sarcasm that Zack completely missed.

"Fire away."

"One, where does the goalie take the tip-off from, and two, how many points does a grand slam count for?"

Zack's mouth goldfished as he tried to count all the things wrong with what his brother just said. Cody didn't give him a chance and smacked him with one of the small pillows from the arm of the couch.

"I know how football works, Zack," Cody laughed. "I don't know why people like to run into each other at a hundred miles an hour but I know how it works."

"That's a good thing because I wasn't sure how to tell you that football might be too hard for you and that you needed to stick to watching curling," Zack replied, audibly relieved.

"Hey! Curling is actually really cool."

"Of course it is," Zack mumbled with a roll of his eyes. "That's why they only show it every four years in the Olympics and even then it's on at two in the morning." He was saved from Cody's defense of his favorite oddball sport by their mother's arrival.

"Hi, boys!" Carey said as she walked in with a bag of groceries under one arm. "How was school?"

"Good," the twins answered in unison but with varying degrees of sincerity.

"The same old same old, huh?" she said as she set the bag on the counter and began putting things away.

"Yep, it was as horrible as always," Zack told her, "but there's a football game tonight. Can we have some money for tickets and food?"

"We?" Carey asked. "Are you royalty now?"

"Cody's going with me tonight."

Carey poked her head out from behind the freezer door and looked at her younger son. "Oh really?"

"Cody _might_ be going to the football game with Zack tonight," Cody corrected.

"Oh really?" Carey repeated.

"Yeah, Cody's going with me if his new friend can go."

"You made a new friend? That's great, honey," she said as she slid a new tub of ice cream out of sight behind stacks of frozen vegetables. "What's his name?"

"Chase," both boys said at once, followed quickly by a "do you mind?" from Cody to his brother.

"Sorry."

"He just moved here from Colorado and started school yesterday and-" Zack zoned out and traced the grain in the table's wood with a fingertip, occasionally looking up, while Cody talked for almost five minutes about his new friend. Carey looked questioningly at Zack during Cody's spiel and he could only subtly shrug his shoulders. He'd never heard Cody talk about anyone for that long, either.

"Well, he sounds like a nice boy, Cody," Carey said when he was finally finished. "You'll have to have him over some time so I can meet him."

"Will you make dinner?" he asked.

"Not if you don't want me to. I am getting better, though," Carey replied. "Haven't burned water once this week."

"We'll see, Mom," he laughed. She'd made that joke a million times and it still always made him smile.

"Sounds like a plan. We can do pizza or Chinese or whatever you boys want to eat."

Still draped in his blanket, Zack got up and stood next to his mother in the kitchen. "So, Mom...about that football game..."

"I haven't forgotten about it, Zack," she told him. "Let me get my clothes for tonight ready and I'll give you some money. When does it start?"

"Six-thirty," Zack told her as she ducked into her room and came back out with two dresses and shoes to match.

Carey winced at the thought of sitting on frozen metal bleachers at night in anything less than six pairs of sweatpants as she hung the dresses on the back of the door and dropped the shoe bag nearby. "So you'll be back around nine or nine-thirty?"

"Maybe. It could be after midnight if the game goes into enough overtimes, though." He looked up at her hopefully.

"No, it definitely won't be, Zack," she said as she rummaged through her purse. "I wasn't allowed to be out that late until I was seventeen and you're only twelve. Ten o'clock."

"Ten-thirty?"

" _Eight_?"

"Ten's a great time to be home, Mom. Ten it is," Zack agreed furiously as she pulled two twenties from her purse.

"One's for you and one's for your brother. I'd like to have at least some of it back, please." Carey put the two bills in Zack's hand. "Are either of you hungry? I need to head downstairs a bit early today to make sure they got the lighting for my second set worked out but I can whip up a few sandwiches before I go."

"Go ahead, Mom. I can take care of it," Cody said as he turned his phone over and over in his hands.

"You're sure? I don't mind."

"I don't know about Cody but I'm saving my appetite for big plate of the stadium's cheese fries so I'm good."

"Yum," Carey said and fake gagged. "Well, the usual rules apply. Don't get arrested, don't set any cars on fire, don't freeze, and most importantly, don't be late."

"Got it," Zack said as she bent down and kissed the top of his head. She walked over to Cody and gave him the same.

"Keep an eye on your brother if you go, huh?" she stage-whispered with a grin.

"I heard that!"

Carey was gone with a flourish a few seconds later. Zack came to the couch and settled back in. Cody held a hand out and Zack slapped it. Cody shook his head and wiggled his fingers.

"You don't even know if you're going yet," he grumbled as he dug Cody's half of the money from his pocket and handed it over.

"Just in case," Cody said and put it in his own pocket.

"When do you think you'll know?" Zack picked up the remote and flipped channels until he found something animated.

"Hopefully not long after Chase does."

"How did you know all those things you told Mom about him?"

"Well, he talked and I actually listened to what he said. It's not really that hard."

"It was kinda weird. It's like you're a detective working on a case about him or something. I'm not sure if I know that much stuff about you and we've shared a room our whole lives."

"Literally. You talk and I listen, I guess." Cody didn't think it was weird at all at first. He blankly stared at the television and started to think about it. Maybe it was a little weird. Not super weird. _Mom wouldn't think anything of it. She'd just think I was excited about having a new friend. Which I am. Zack..._ Cody didn't know what Zack really thought of it.

The sound of a lightsaber igniting interrupted the commercial and Cody looked down at his phone to see a smiling icon in the upper left corner and nearly dropped it in excitement. He looked at it until the screen dimmed.

"Are you going to see what he said?" Zack asked.

"Of course. I was just...never mind." He opened the message and read it. _Hey Cody, It's Chase. I can go tonight! When and where should we meet?_ The fact that Chase wrote actual English words instead of text-speak made him like his new friend even more. Most of Zack's texts looked like someone dropped a bowl of Alphabets cereal on his screen.

"Well?" Zack asked after a few seconds. "Did he write a novel or something?"

"He says he can go and wants to know where and when he should meet us."

"Tell him like ten after six and to meet us where he gets on the bus. The field isn't far from there and it'll be hard to miss him."

Zack watched over his shoulder as Cody tapped his message out on the screen and shook his head when Cody added _don't forget to dress warm_ followed by an coat and scarf icon before sending it on its way. The lightsaber ignited again a few seconds later.

"You are such a nerd," Zack laughed. "What'd he say this time?"

"He just sent a thumbs-up and a smiley face."

"Jeez, he texts like you do. Where are you going?" Zack asked as Cody stood up and headed to their room.

"I'm going to find the warmest stuff I have and see how much of it I can put on before I can't move like the little brother in _A Christmas Story_. And then I'm going to put more of it in my backpack just in case."

"It's not going to be that bad."

Cody stopped in their room's doorway. "It didn't even reach thirty today when the sun was out. It's going to be worse tonight. You were thinking about painting your chest in the school's colors and going shirtless again, weren't you?"

"Well I wasn't until just now," Zack admitted. Cody simply shook his head and stepped into the bedroom.

* * *

"That's him, right?" Zack asked as the twins approached the loading area. There was a lone soul bundled up against the cold standing beside a pillar and out of the wind.

"I think so. That looks like his coat," Cody replied and waved and was satisfied when he got a wave back. They scurried across the parking lot and joined Chase under the roof. "We didn't keep you waiting long, did we?"

"Nah, my mom just dropped me off a minute ago," the boy said.

"Good. I tried to hurry Cody out the door but he kept being lazy," Zack told him as they started walking to the field.

"Yeah, because that's exactly how it went," Cody replied and rolled his eyes. "Chase, Zack lives in his own special world in case you haven't noticed yet."

"It's an awesome place," Zack shrugged. "It's always warm there."

"What's in your pack, Cody?" Chase asked when he noticed the duffel slung over his friend's shoulder.

"Arctic survival gear. Actually it's just a really big, thick blanket and some of those little chemical hand warmers."

"Smart," Chase said as they approached the end of the rather short line.

A few minutes later they were inside the gates and making their way along the bleachers. "Oh wow! Look over there. We can get really good seats almost on the fifty," Zack exclaimed as he saw an empty spot a few rows up and over. "C'mon!" He led the way and soon enough they reached the perfectly sized spot and sat down.

"This is so much better than two weeks ago," Zack said as he settled in. "I was waaaay over there." He pointed to a spot near the end zone.

Cody nearly told him that their last home game still had decent weather but didn't bother. He didn't want to be told that it wasn't _that_ cold again even though he was fairly certain the little hairs in his nose were already turning into icicles. He turned to his right and saw that Chase was rubbing his gloved hands together while looking everywhere at once.

"This is pretty cool," he said when he saw Cody looking at him. "I can actually see the field without a telescope. Whenever we got tickets to the Broncos games back home, we were usually about two rows from outer space."

The opposing team took the field and Zack started tapping his feet. "It's about to get loud, you guys!" he said to his brother and Chase.

As soon as the boys in green and their coaches had reached the visitors' sideline, a tiger's roar followed by eighties metal pulsed through the stadium's speakers, welcoming them to the jungle. Zack jumped to his feet and cheered while the other two split their attention between him and their own players running onto the field.

Chase cupped his hands and almost yelled into Cody's ear over the noise. "He's a little excited, huh?"

"I can only imagine what he'll do if we score," Cody yelled back and Chase smirked.

The first quarter wound down and and the lone score on the board was a field goal by the other team. "I'll be right back," Zack said as he scooted by the other two and made his way off the bleachers.

"Snack run?" Chase asked and shivered.

"Probably. He had twenty bucks and I won't be shocked if he spends every bit of it." Cody reached down to the bag between his feet and pulled out the blanket. He unfolded it and offered half to his friend. "It's not the best but it'll help."

"Thanks," Chase told him as he took it and wrapped it over his shoulders. Cody felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and a tingle ran down his spine as they rubbed shoulders while getting the blanket around themselves. He swallowed hard and refused to think about it and hoped his cheeks didn't turn too much redder than they already were from the cold. He and Chase were already a few degrees warmer by the time Zack made it back with his fries and a trio of steaming hot chocolates.

"Don't mention it," Zack said as he handed the drinks out and was thanked by Chase and a very surprised Cody.

"There's enough room under the blanket for you, too, if you want," Chase told him once he sat back down. He held the side of the blanket open.

"Nah, I'm good. I don't want to tear it off of you two when we score and I have to do my touchdown dance."

"If," Cody said.

"No, _when_. We will. We're just spotting them a little lead before we come back and stomp a hole in them," Zack replied with certainty. Cody shrugged and Chase wrapped the blanket back around himself.

The second quarter began and ended, halftime came and went, and the third quarter trickled away and neither Cody nor Chase saw any sign of Zack's touchdown dance as Jackson Middle steadily increased their lead and their own score remained stuck at zero.

"Cody, you jinxed us," Zack said sadly as the final minute ticked away. He'd gone from standing and cheering to sitting with his head in his gloved hands.

"What?"

"You totally jinxed us. We should be creaming these guys but we're not."

"And this is my fault?"

"Well, maybe! We at least scored in all the other games this year even if we didn't win them."

"And then I come to my first game and magically suck all the skill out of every player on the field and make us lose the game by simply being here?"

"It...sounds so much stupider when you say it like that."

"It'll be okay, Zack. It's just a game. You'll live," Cody told his brother while trying to hide a grin. He turned to Chase and rolled his eyes and got a muffled chuckle in response.

The beatdown finally ended and the hundred or so fans that had remained through the cold and disappointing play began to head for the exits. Cody packed up his blanket and the boys joined the herd spilling out into the parking lot.

"Well, Chase, sorry about tonight's game being so crap. We usually don't suck that bad," Zack said as the trio moved through the thinning crowd.

"It's okay. I still had fun."

"You did?"

"Sure. No one wins all the time and I had a good time hanging out with you guys tonight. I, uh, didn't get too many chances to do that back at my old school," Chase's voice trailed off abruptly and he turned away to look for his mother's car. Zack looked at his brother questioningly but Cody shook his head and Zack dropped it. "I don't see her anywhere," he said after giving the lot a quick scan. "She texted me during the third quarter saying she was on her way."

"Welcome to Boston, Chase. The traffic here is terrible," Zack said. "We'll wait with you until she gets here."

"You don't have to do that, guys."

"That's what friends do," Cody told him. He had just started unzipping his bag to retrieve the blanket when Chase piped up.

"There she is!" The boys watched as the car maneuvered its way through the rows and pulled up to the curb.

"Sorry, honey, I took the wrong exit and was half way to China before I could find a place to turn around," Chase's mother said after her window slid down. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to driving in this city. It's just laid out so weird." Her breath rolled out in a white fog.

"It's okay, Mom. We've only been out here for a few minutes and I don't think we've lost any toes yet."

"That's good news. Hop on in and we'll try to keep it that way."

"See you later, Chase," Cody said as the boy started heading around to the passenger side.

"Yeah, later on, man. Maybe we'll win the next one if you come," Zack added. Chase said his goodbyes and ducked into the back seat and closed the door as quickly as he could. He waved through the back window as the car drove off. The twins cut through the parking lot and were walking quickly up the sidewalk when a car pulled up beside them and matched their pace. Cody looked over and saw Chase's face in the glass.

"Hey, my mom said it's too cold to walk so get in and she'll drop you off," he said once the window came down.

"That's okay, it's really not that-"

"What Cody is trying to say is that would be awesome," Zack interrupted.

"The car is a little on the small side," Chase's mother told them as she took it out of gear. "Chase, scoot over and one of your friends can sit back there with you and the other can ride up front."

"He's your friend," Zack said with a shrug after the twins shared a brief silent exchange over who was sitting where. Cody slid in beside Chase while Zack got in the front seat.

"Sorry, boys," she said once everyone was settled in and buckled up, "if Chase had told me you were walking in the first place we could have organized this a little better but he didn't."

"Yeah, sorry, guys, I didn't even think about it," Chase said sheepishly.

"It's okay, ma'am. We really appreciate it," Cody told her and Zack quickly agreed.

"It's no problem at all and this way I get to meet the mysterious Cody that my son has been talking about for the last two days." Cody looked up and saw her eyes and smile in the small mirror.

"Mom..." Chase exasperatedly drew the short word out to nearly a full second as only a boy that age can do before turning to look at Cody. "I told her how you've been helping me find my classes and all that stuff," he hastily offered as an explanation.

Cody glanced up at the mirror again and saw the same smile on Chase's mother's face before she looked away and pulled the car out into traffic.


	4. Chapter 4

"You know that you'll get warmer faster if you actually put some clothes on, right?" Cody asked as his brother adjusted the thermostat upwards to a balmy ninety degrees. Zack had vanished into their bedroom after throwing his jacket in the general direction of the coat rack when they'd entered the suite and came back out wearing just his favorite fleece pajama pants.

"So you always tell me," Zack replied and flopped down on the couch beside Cody and turned on the television.

"I always tell you because it's true and also because you know Mom will throw a fit when she gets home and walks into another one of your dry saunas." Cody leaned forward and started untying his shoes.

"I'll turn it down again before she gets home. Besides, I'm going for comfort now after the beating we just took."

"You still don't think that was my fault, do you?" Cody tucked the laces into his shoes and temporarily slid them under the coffee table.

"No. It just kinda sucks that you and Chase come out to your first game and we totally stunk up the place."

"Well, for what it's worth, I still had fun and Chase said he did, too." Cody leaned back against the cushion and let his hands lazily fall into his lap.

"How? We got blown out! I don't see how that can be fun."

"Not everyone lives and dies by sports like you do, Zack. I had fun because I got to hang out with you and Chase while doing something I hadn't done before and I imagine Chase is probably somewhere on the same page. Also, that hot chocolate was really good."

"It was, wasn't it?" Zack laughed. "It was like drinking a Hershey's bar." The brothers were quiet for a bit as Zack randomly hopped through the channels. "You know what was the best part of the whole night?"

Knowing Zack like he did, it could be anything. Cody had no idea and he admitted it. "No, what?"

"Not having to walk home."

"I'll agree with that. The wind chill was probably in the single digits by the time we got out of there, maybe even lower, and we weren't in it."

"Yeah, that was nice, too."

"Huh?"

"Dude...Chase's mom is totally hot."

"What?"

"You didn't notice? Are you sure we're actually related?"

"In case you forgot, I was sitting in the back with Chase the whole way. The only part of her I really saw were her eyes in the mirror when she looked in it."

"You know Rogue from the X-men, right? Not the movie but the old cartoon. You'd make a better Rogue than that movie girl did."

"Umm, thanks, I guess," Cody said as he pretended to think of who Zack was talking about.

"You have no clue, do you?"

"Not a one."

Zack let loose with a long sigh and pulled his phone from a pocket and furiously tapped away. "Her," he said as he showed Cody the screen.

"Zack, aside from the red hair, I'm pretty sure Chase's mom looked _nothing_ like that!" Cody said and laughed.

"Well, no, not _just_ like that but kind of." Zack studied his phone for a few seconds and Cody pulled a small cushion from his end of the couch and placed it on his brother's lap. "Hey!"

"Just in case. Those pants don't hide much," he said and Zack didn't argue. "I guess that kind of explains why you didn't do much talking in the car on the way here, huh?"

"Maybe." Zack tried to hide a guilty grin.

"I should tell him," Cody laughed again as he pretended to grab his phone from the table.

"You better not!" Zack said and leaned over to pin his brother against the side of the couch and gave Cody's ticklish flanks a workout.

"Okay! Okay! I was only kidding!" Zack pulled back and Cody resettled himself on the cushion and pushed his hair out of his reddened face before smirking at his brother.

"What?"

"What if Chase meets our mom and thinks she's as hot as you think his mom is?"

"Then we'll have to get him to a doctor as quick as we can because he'll obviously be going blind."

"Ouch," Cody said with a grin. "Anyway, I'm going to go grab a shower before you can use all the hot water. Have fun with whatever her name is." Cody gestured at Zack's phone as he got up.

"Rogue, Cody. Rogue. Hottest X-woman of all time," Zack shook his head at his brother as he walked away.

"Sure thing," Cody said over his shoulder as he grabbed clean clothes from his dresser before ducking into the bathroom and closing the door.

He wasn't in the shower much longer than normal, just his usual five minutes with an extra minute or two tacked on to make sure there weren't any frozen spots left on his body, but when he came back out Zack had pulled the blanket over himself and was slumped against the arm of the couch and nearly asleep. Cody watched his chin slowly sink to his chest before jerking back up again.

"Why don't you go to bed?" Cody asked as he took his spot back.

"Because it's Friday night and no one goes to bed this early on a Friday."

"You were about ten seconds away from drooling."

"I'm not even tired yet," Zack answered automatically and promptly yawned.

"Of course you aren't." Cody piled the sarcasm on again and Zack caught it this time.

"Okay, maybe a little." Zack stretched out every muscle he could and let out a very satisfied groan. He leaned back into the cushion and closed his eyes. "Oh, Chase texted you while you were in the shower, by the way. And before you ask, no, I didn't read it, I just saw his name on the top of your screen."

"Did you not read it because you're a good brother or did you not read it because I changed my code?" Cody asked as he retrieved his phone and unlocked it before navigating to his messages.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," Zack said and smiled. "What'd he say?"

"He said he had a lot of fun and we should do it again but maybe at a basketball game since they're inside."

"I won't argue with that," Zack agreed. "Heck, we might even score if we play basketball." He burrowed a little deeper into the blanket.

"Are we any better at basketball than we are at football?" Cody was contemplating his response to Chase as Zack sleepily took his time answering.

"Let me put it this way, Cody. You know who LeBron James, is right?"

"Yes I know who LeBron is!"

"I just had to be sure. It would take LeBron James somehow being able to play on our team for us to have a chance to win half of our games. I probably had a pretty good shot at making the team if I'd tried out. No, even better, _you_ might have made it."

"That bad?"

"Well, maybe not quite bad enough for you to actually make it but you know what I mean," he said with a grin. Cody reached over and lightly punched where he figured his brother's arm might be under the blankets and Zack laughed.

Cody split his attention between the television and his phone as he tried to write a message that didn't sound too eager or excited about hanging out again. _I don't want to sound like I'm clingy or anything,_ he thought to himself. By the time he figured it out and sent it, Zack's breathing had turned into snores. "Mr. Friday Night in action," he said softly and smirked.

Cody set his phone on the arm of the couch and got up to make a little snack. He'd eaten a few of Zack's greasy fries during the game but they'd long since worn off. He was rooting through the refrigerator for the cheese when he heard his phone go off again. He turned around and saw that Zack hadn't budged so he took his time as he cut the Velveeta into squares and put them on the plate with some crackers. He added a glass of milk to his snack and carried everything back out to the living room. He popped a cracker and cheese into his mouth and unlocked his phone to see what Chase sent.

A very tired Carey let herself into the suite and gently closed the door behind her before leaning against it and sighing. "Oh that is so much better," she muttered while kicking off the shoes that had felt fine at the beginning of her second set but now seemed to be lined with gravel. Her eyes were looking around the suite and taking inventory of all the lights the boys left on when she caught sight of a little blond head looking down, seemingly totally engrossed with his phone. _Zack wouldn't notice a fire alarm going off right next to him when he's on that thing,_ she thought and then realized it was her other son. _Oh no, Cody's infected now, too!_ she added with a smile.

"Hey, Cody, I'm home," Carey said as she slowly walked further into the suite.

Cody's head snapped up. "Oh, hi, Mom. I didn't hear you come in. What are you doing home so early?"

"Well," Carey replied, letting her gaze drop down to her watch and reassure herself that it was as late as she thought it was, "it's after midnight. I wouldn't really call that early."

"Midnight? Wow it is. I've been texting with Chase since we got back and I didn't even notice."

"You went after all, huh?" Carey asked as she went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of the finest boxed chardonnay the grocery store had to offer. "Did you have fun?"

"Surprisingly yes," he answered. "It was absolutely freezing and our team got demolished but I actually had a good time."

"That's good. Did your new friend go, too?"

Cody nodded. "He met us there and then his mom gave us a ride back after the game was over."

"You thanked her?" Carey knew the answer but tweaked her son a little anyway.

"Of course! Zack and I both did."

"Speaking of your brother..." Carey stepped a bit to her right and peered into the boys' bedroom and saw an unmade and empty bed against the far wall.

"He's somewhere under all this." Cody gestured to the large blanket pile. Carey strode over to inspect the mass of bedding and saw part of a foot sticking out of one end and hair and a nose at the other and nodded. "I told him he should go to bed but he fell asleep there instead."

"He'll be fine. He might regret not listening to you when I vacuum out here in the morning, though," Carey said and shrugged. She reached down and tickled the sole of the exposed foot and Zack jerked it under the covers with an unconscious grumble. "I'm going to find something quick and easy for dinner. Are you hungry?" She took another sip of her wine and started toward the kitchen.

"No, I ate something a little while ago. Thank you, though." He glanced through the two dozen or so texts he'd exchanged earlier with Chase for the hundredth time as a question hit him. "Hey, Mom?"

"Yes, Cody?" Carey opened the freezer and searched for one of her frozen entrees.

"Would it be okay if Chase spends the night over here some time?"

"Oh, like a pajama party?"

"Not really, no. The boy version of that."

Carey snorted a noseful of cold air. "Oh, right. A sleepover. Where boys stay up all night playing video games, drinking soda, and lighting their farts." She found a Lean Cuisine and pulled it out and scanned the small print for the microwave directions.

"Probably a lot more of the first two than the third, Mom. I hope, anyway," Cody laughed. "So would it be okay?"

"Of course it would be, Cody. When were you thinking about having him stay?"

"I not sure. I haven't really thought about it and I don't even know if he'd want to."

Carey poked a hole in the plastic over the rock-hard chicken and tossed it in the microwave. She closed the little door and set the timer. "Well, if you do ask him, and he does say yes, just let me know and we'll figure something out and make it work."

"Thanks, Mom."

"No problem, honey. Why don't you ask him now?"

 _Because I'm afraid he might say no and that would ruin what has been, up until this point, a rather fantastic night_ , he thought to himself. He looked at the phone in his hand and considered it before deciding not to. "I think he fell asleep. He hasn't said anything back in a little while," Cody told her.

"Well, like I said, just let me know."

"I will, Mom." Carey went into her room to change while the microwave hummed away and Cody sat peacefully on the couch. He thought back on the last few hours and couldn't remember a recent time where he'd enjoyed himself as much. Zack suddenly shifted in his sleep and kicked Cody in the shin. "Ow, you jerk," Cody mumbled as he rubbed his leg. "I should tell your new girlfriend about that," he said and grinned. His grin almost turned into a full-fledged giggle as he imagined Zack sitting beside his friend's mother. He could easily see Zack's patented dopey look plastered across his face as his brother stared a hole through the woman as she drove.

If Mrs. Mitchell noticed Zack's razor-sharp attention, she didn't give any sign that Cody could see. There was more than enough conversation to drown out his silence during the short trek to the hotel, most of it consisting of Chase's mother asking Cody a question, Chase rolling his eyes and saying something like _jeez, Mom!_ , and Cody answering the question as best he could while trying to not laugh at his friend. By the time they finally made it through traffic and arrived at the hotel, Cody felt like he'd been through a friendly but very thorough interrogation.

Chase had put his hand on Cody's shoulder and leaned in close as the car was coming to a stop. "I'm sorry, Cody," he whispered, "she usually isn't like this, I promise. She's...I don't know."

"It's okay," Cody told him softly as he unfastened the belt. "It's probably a mom thing. I'm sure mine will do the same whenever you meet her. I'll try to stop her but you know how they are." Cody gave an exaggerated shrug and smile. "Thank you again, Mrs. Mitchell," he said after he found the door latch and opened it. Zack gave his thanks as well.

"Any time, Cody. You too, Zack," she said as the twins got out and closed the doors. Chase waved and they returned it as the car drove off before hurrying up the salted steps and into the warm Tipton lobby.

 _Chase's breath smelled like hot chocolate,_ he randomly thought as he again looked at his phone's further thoughts on chocolate breath were derailed by the microwave beeping but the fuzzy warmth the memory brought hung around even as his mother appeared in her oversized pink robe.

"Are you sure you don't want any of this, Cody? I was a lot hungrier a few minutes ago," Carey said as she pulled the steaming plastic container from the microwave and quickly set it on the counter before blowing on her fingers.

"No, thank you," he replied, and was going to add that Zack would eat it for breakfast but a massive yawn interrupted him. He went from vaguely tired to almost exhausted in the course of one deep breath.

"Wow, that was a good one, huh?"

Cody nodded as he shook off the last of the yawn. "I guess that's my body's way of telling me that five in the morning was a long time ago." He rubbed his eyes and yawned a much smaller yawn. Stealing some of the blankets Zack was laying under was suddenly one of the best ideas he'd ever had.

"Why don't you go on to bed, Cody? You've had a long and busy day and that way I'll only have one grouchy boy in the morning instead of two."

"Yeah, I think I will." Cody, with Herculean effort, stood and stretched. "Goodnight, Mom," he said as he walked into the kitchen for a quick hug.

"I'll see you in the morning, kiddo," Carey said as she squeezed her son.

Cody made the journey to his room on leaden feet and sprawled onto the bed. He reached over and flicked the light off before wriggling his way under the covers. Utter contentment hit him as he pulled the comforter up to its perfect spot just below his chin. Cody was well on his way to a blissful slumber when the memory of the short contact with Chase and the electric feeling it sparked in him returned.

"No, please no," he said quietly as his mind started churning. Sleep was a long time coming for him.

* * *

 _I've fallen into my yearly work-is-crazy rut and I haven't had the free time I usually do to sit down and write and I hate that. I guess better late than never, right? Questions? Comments? Let me know what you think._

 _-SI_


	5. Chapter 5

It took Cody nearly two weeks to finally muster up the courage to ask Chase about sleeping over. He'd almost asked him countless times but the fear of Chase declining the invitation held him back. He awoke on a dreadfully cold Thursday morning knowing that he was almost out of time unless he wanted to wait another entire week. Cody thought about it during his shower, during breakfast, and while brushing his teeth. "I can do this," he told the mirror as he wiped away a stray bit of toothpaste from his lower lip. His reflection offered no reassurances.

He almost couldn't. Cody chickened out the first time as he and Chase were in the hall before school started and was on the verge of doing it again on the way to English class. He'd already opened his mouth to ask three times during their short walk but the words died each time. _Come on, you coward, you can do this_ , he said and steeled himself, hoping for the best. _Just do it!_ "Hey, uh, Chase?" he asked bravely. His stomach was in free fall.

"Yeah?"

"Would you ever want to maybe spend the night at my place? I mean, if you don't want to that would be okay but I thought it could be fun."

"I-" Chase managed before Cody continued on. He was finally able to get the words out and now they wouldn't stop.

"There are some new modpacks for Minecraft we could try out. I tried one of them before and it sounded really cool but it was all buggy and kept crashing but it just got updated so it should actually work the way it's supposed to now or we could watch movies and we could get some pizza for dinner or if you don't like pizza we could figure something else out like maybe Chinese," Cody rambled. He kept going like a busted pipe for a few more seconds about what they could do before Chase put a hand on his shoulder and shushed him. Cody's words instantly dried up.

"I think that would be fun," Chase told him once he could get a word in.

"Oh." Cody was more than slightly surprised. "Really?"

"Sure," he laughed. "When do you want to do it?"

Cody was now on the spot. He'd been so worried that Chase wouldn't want to that he'd barely given a thought to what he'd say if Chase happened to say yes. "Um...maybe this weekend? Friday or Saturday night?"

"I'll text my mom when we get to class and see what she says."

"Well. Okay then," Cody said as he tried to not show on the outside how excited he was on the inside. They turned into their classroom and took their seats and Cody watched Chase pull his phone out to fire off a quick message to his mother. A few minutes into the class, Cody heard a very faint buzzing and saw his friend reach down and push against the flat lump in his pocket.

The next forty five minutes were among the longest in Cody's life. Mr. Goldman was an ancient grey-haired wrinkle of a man that considered cell phones to be the downfall of civilization and loved to confiscate them on sight. As much as Cody wanted Chase to pull his phone out and see what his mother said, he wanted Chase to keep his phone a little more. He did his best to pay attention as the man spoke and slowly diagrammed a sentence on the board but concentration was almost impossible. The answer to one of the most important questions ever asked was sitting close by under a thin layer of denim and he couldn't find out what it was until the bell rang.

Mr. Goldman finally wrapped up his lesson and the boys packed their bags quickly and were out into the hallway mere seconds after the class was over. "What'd she say?" Cody asked as Chase fished his phone out.

"Hang on, I can't read while I'm walking." Chase moved out of the flood of kids to the wall to lean against it. "She says that Friday night is no good but Saturday is fine and to let her know all the details when I get home." Chase blacked the screen and looked up at his friend.

"That'll be...cool," Cody said smoothly even though he wanted to pump his fist in celebration. "What time would you want to come over?"

"I don't know. I've never been to a sleepover before. Maybe around four?"

"I've never had a sleepover before but that sounds good to me."

"Four it is then," Chase told him and that was that. Cody felt nine feet tall as they walked to their next class. _See? That wasn't so hard, was it?_ He asked himself. _All that worrying about nothing._

* * *

"You don't have to go anywhere, you know," Cody said after he told his brother about the upcoming sleepover on their walk home and Zack told him that he'd find somewhere to go for the night. "You can stay there and hang out with us."

"Cody, no offense, but I really don't think that sitting around while you two play Nerdcraft all night would really be that awesome for me."

"I'm sure that isn't all we'll do, Zack. It might not even be something we do at all. And besides, I still think you'd like the game if you just gave it a try once instead of making fun of it."

"How many times have we had this talk, Cody?" Cody wasn't looking at his brother but could hear the eye roll in his voice.

"Oh, probably about four or five thousand by now."

"Has my answer ever changed?"

"No."

"There you go."

Defeated, all Cody could do was shake his head and mumble _I still think you'd like it_ under his breath. "Anyway, you don't have to leave. Chase is your friend, too. At least I think he is."

"No, he is. I like him but he's definitely more your friend than mine."

"How do you figure that?"

"You guys are together all the time at school, Cody, and you send each other geeky texts and chat on Skype when you're not. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think that the two of you are twins instead of the two of us."

"It's not that bad. Is it?" Cody's guard instantly shot up.

"Kinda. One of my friends asked me if you'd traded me in for a newer model yesterday. I told him that I think you did."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Zack said, a little stronger that he intended. He stuffed his hands back into his coat and looked at the ground as they walked.

 _Oh_ , Cody thought to himself. "You're not mad at me, are you?"

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"Because I've been hanging out with Chase more than you since he moved here?" Cody asked. He wasn't quite sure if Zack was serious about not being mad and couched his answer as a question.

"I've been hanging out with you for almost thirteen years, Cody. I don't mind a little break, trust me," Zack laughed. "Honestly, though? I was. A little, at least, but Mom fixed that."

"You told Mom you were mad at me?"

"Of _course_ not!" Zack exclaimed, more than a bit indignant that Cody would ever think he'd willfully violate the Brother Code. "It was one of the days you and Chase stayed after school last week to do whatever it was you did and it was just the two of us at home. I asked her if she'd get some of those awesome peanut butter cookies from the grocery's bakery the next time she went and the next thing I knew she was pulling it out of me like it was on a string. I don't know how she does it or even knew I was kind of upset. Some kind of mom magic. She should really work for the FBI instead of singing. Every case would be solved in like three minutes."

"So...what did she say?" Cody asked after Zack finished.

"That you were really excited about having a best friend. She made it a lot longer than that and it sounded way smarter but that's what she meant."

Cody digested that as they walked. _She's right. As usual_ , he decided. He'd never intended to hurt Zack's feelings but he'd become wrapped up in himself and didn't notice. _Wrapped up in Chase, too_ , he added and felt a mix of emotions barrel roll through his stomach.

"You do remember that Saturdays are Zombie Movie Nights, right?" Zack asked a few dozen steps later, bringing Cody out of his thoughts

"I...well, I didn't at the time, no."

"Does Chase like zombie flicks?"

"I'm not sure," Cody admitted.

"So you don't know everything about him," Zack joked, playfully bumping into his brother.

"I'm pretty sure there's still lots of things I don't know about him, Zack." _Like what he'd say if I told him I-_

"I guess we'll find out Saturday," Zack announced, again interrupting Cody's internal monologue.

"Does that mean you're going to stay around after all?"

"I was probably going to in the first place but you could raise that to definitely if you can tell me there'll be pizza for dinner. Chase does like pizza, right?" He gave Cody an especially hopeful look.

"Yes," Cody laughed, "yes he does."

* * *

Zack was laying on his belly on his bed. His knees were bent and he was idly kicking his socked feet back and forth while his face was stuffed in a comic book. A weird tingle danced up his spine as the little hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He glanced away from Lycra and explosions to see Cody standing in the doorway slowly looking around the room. "Can I help you?"

"I'm just double checking that the room isn't too dirty."

Zack glanced to each side of his bed and didn't see any large piles of junk and ignored the smaller piles of junk along the wall and a stack of poorly folded clothes that miraculously hadn't fallen off his dresser. "I think we're good here."

"I'm not sure good is the word I'd use to describe your half but we'll go with that," Cody said.

"Will you calm down already? It's only Chase coming over, remember?"

"I think I'd be less jittery if it was anyone other than him."

"Seriously?"

"I know, I know, but I want everything to go perfect. I don't want to screw this up."

"I think you're safe, buddy. I'm pretty sure Chase won't run away if he happens to come in here and sees some underwear sticking out from under your bed."

"Your bed." Cody pointed at the shadows beneath the frame.

"Whatever," Zack laughed. "Pretty sure I picked those up." Zack turned on his side and dropped an arm to the floor and started feeling around beneath the bed. "Or maybe not." Zack's hand came out from under the bed full of balled up cotton. "Here, throw these in the-"

"Not a chance," Cody said and took a step back away from the door.

Zack rolled his eyes and tossed them left handed at the clothes hamper in the corner and was genuinely surprised when they went in. "Does it pass inspection now?"

Cody took one last look around their room. "Yeah, I guess so."

"How long until he gets here?"

Cody stepped into the room just far enough to see the clock on his nightstand. "About ten minutes."

"That sounds like just enough time for you to chill out. You're going to give yourself an enema if you keep worrying like this."

"I _really_ hope you mean aneurysm, Zack."

"I probably do. Anyway, I've got the newest issue of _Captain Napalm_ if you want to read it. That'll take your mind off of things for a little bit." Zack nodded his head to the stack of comics on his dresser. "It's the one on top."

"Thanks, but I think I'm okay. I'm just going to make sure I haven't forgotten anything."

Zack started to tell his brother that he'd already checked everything in the suite at least a dozen times over in the last three hours but Cody had already turned and left their room. He shook his head and returned to his world of super heroes.

"Cody, honey, I love you to death but if you don't calm down I'm going to put you out on the balcony until he gets here," Carey said as she watched her son rearrange things on the counter for the third time in two minutes. She'd been leaning against the sink leisurely sipping on a cup of coffee when Cody began his latest straightening binge.

"I'm a little nervous."

"I can tell." Carey set the cup out of Cody's reach and put her hands on his shoulders. "Just cool it. Everything is going to be fine. Chase is coming here to hang out with you, not critique you on whether the pepper shaker is on the left or right side of the salt shaker." She could tell it was taking everything in her son's power to not look over his shoulder and see which shaker was where. "Did you guys figure out what dinner is going to be?" she asked to get him thinking of something else.

"We were thinking that we'd go to that little pizza place around the corner if that was okay with you, Mom."

"Sure," she said after a second's consideration. "Just don't go over too late because it can get a little rowdy in there on the weekends."

"You don't have to worry about that. Zack's going with us and he'll be hungry long before anything crazy could start happening."

"It might not even be dark yet when we go," Zack said as he walked out of the bedroom patting his belly. "Lunch was two hours ago and their pizza is awesome."

"Well," Carey told the boys as she pulled her wallet from her purse, "just remember that I wouldn't say no to a piece or two if they somehow happen to make it back here." She plucked a few bills from it and gave them to Cody.

Zack was in the middle of telling her that probably wasn't going to happen when the doorbell chimed. He watched his brother's eyes widen and his body freeze. One second passed. Two. Three. "Hey, just in case you didn't hear that, your friend is at the door," he said as he snapped his fingers in front of Cody's face. "Okay, I'll get it, you just stand right here and hold that tile down." He patted Cody on the head as he went to the door.

"Hey, Zack," Chase said as Zack swung it open.

"Welcome to Castle Martin, Chase," Zack told him as he moved backwards and out of the way. "Cody's in the bathroom right now."

"No I'm not," Cody, his paralysis broken, answered as his friend came in. He popped around the corner and tried to hurry casually to his brother's side. "Hi, Chase!"

"Hey, Cody!" Zack was secretly hoping for a very nerdy high five but was disappointed when they just bumped knuckles.

"Come on in. You can put your bag right there for now and there's a coat rack by the door," Cody told him. His massive case of nerves seemed to be dying a quick death now that Chase was finally here and he tried to figure out why he'd been so worried. Chase gently slid his backpack's strap from his shoulder and set it on the floor before unzipping his thick jacket and hanging it up.

Carey listened to the boys' chatter for a few moments before she joined them in the living room. "Hi, Chase," she said, "After everything Cody's told me about you, I feel like I already know you but it's nice to actually meet you."

"Mom..." Cody stood up a little straighter and gave her _the look_. He could all but see the hundreds of motherly questions lining up one by one in her eyes.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Martin. Thanks for letting me stay over."

Cody knew he had to act quickly before their afternoon bogged down in an hour of his mother pulling completely useless facts out of his friend. "Yeah, thanks Mom. C'mon, Chase, let's go put your stuff in my room."

"Our room," Zack chided as Cody picked up his friend's pack.

"I don't claim your half." Cody led Chase away quickly.


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh that was such a weak death," Zack said into his microphone. "I lagged coming around the corner and the dude lit me up like a Christmas tree." He dropped the controller in his lap as he watched himself get shot from the enemy's point of view. " _And_ he teabagged me? What a jerk!"

After his mother had left for the night and his brother and friend declared they weren't ready to go stuff their faces with pizza yet, Zack had settled himself into his spot on the couch and launched Call of Duty. Nothing wasted time as effectively as an online testosterone-fueled pissing contest as far as he was concerned.

"Shut up, Darren. This lag is ridiculous," he said into his mic after another terrible death. He listened to his friend talk and laugh for a few seconds before laughing himself. "Gross. I really doubt Cody is downloading porn right now." He shook his head in an attempt to stop his brain from debating what Cody would download.

"Don't worry, Zack, we're not," Cody fired back from across the room. He and Chase were at the table with their laptops open and were busily clicking. "Besides, we'd just go on your laptop if we wanted porn."

Zack turned his head around, pulled the speakers from his ears, and flipped the mic up and away from his mouth. "How do you know about that?"

Cody smirked at Chase and then at his brother. "Well, to be honest, until just now I only assumed it was on there."

"Busted!" Chase added and the two cracked up.

"You're almost as good at that as Mom is." Zack rolled his eyes and put the headset back in its proper place. "Yeah, Darren, I'm still here," he said as he got back into the game.

Zack played for another half hour before finally throwing in the towel. "Stupid little noob quickscopers," he muttered as he signed off. He slid the controller on the table and scooted around on the couch so he was leaning back against an armrest with his hands across his belly.

"I hate the Nether. These skeletons are the absolute _worst_ ," he heard his brother grumble after having tuned them out for the last while. "Absolutely the worst." Chase commiserated with his friend and Zack yawned.

"Are you guys hungry yet?" He looked between the two and let his eyes rest on Chase.

"Kind of," the boy answered.

"Well, that settles it. Cody, your friend is hungry and you wouldn't want to be a bad host and let him starve, would you?" Zack asked his brother.

"I hardly think he'll starve if he doesn't get pizza in the next five minutes, Zack. You on the other hand..." he let the unfinished statement hang in the air.

"I might start withering away if you don't hurry up over there, Cody." Cody looked up from his screen and tried to puzzle out if Zack had just made an incredibly lame but well timed Minecraft joke or had simply chosen surprisingly apt words.

"Okay, okay, give me a few minutes to find and kill a couple more of these things and we'll go get dinner," he said after deciding it was just a coincidence.

Zack harrumphed but let it go. He pulled his phone out and played around while gazing over at Cody and Chase every few seconds. Zack checked Twitter and then the boys were excitedly talking about lava. He checked ESPN and then they were in the middle of talking about fighting whatever a ghast was. Zack groaned and nearly threw a pillow at his brother. Normally he would have thrown it and not thought twice about it, but Cody was sitting close enough to Chase that Zack couldn't rule out collateral damage.

 _You guys have three other sides of the table to sit at and you're scrunched together like you're on the bus,_ he said to himself as he released his grip on the pillow's seam. "Cody," he fake-gasped, "I see a bright light and my vision is fading out. I...I...think this might be the end for me." Zack dramatically flopped an arm across his forehead. "Tell Mom that I love her..."

"You are the worst actor in the history of the world, Zack," Cody said and shook his head.

"Cody...pizza..." Zack rolled himself off the couch and landed with a _thud._

"Fine, Zack, fine," Cody laughed. He was trying to keep a straight face but couldn't after he saw his brother laying on the floor and peeking around the side of the couch with one eye half-open. "Let's go get this doofus some dinner. We can come back and try to find my body later." Zack popped up from the ground seemingly none the worse for wear after his near-death experience.

The trio left the warmth of the hotel lobby and walked into the cold. Even as bundled up as they were and the walk being short, all three boys were more than a bit chilled by the time they got to Johnny's. Zack looked back over his shoulder at the stop light and silently swore to cut it down if it ever made them wait that long at the crosswalk again.

One step in the door and they were assaulted by the glow of a million neon signs and the delicious aroma of pizzas baking. Despite insisting he wasn't really all that ready to eat a few minutes ago, Cody's stomach growled loud enough for the others to hear it over the the jukebox and chatter.

"Not hungry, huh?" Zack said and elbowed him in the side.

A minute later they were sitting in a booth and pulling off their coats. "It smells so good here," Chase said as his eyes darted everywhere and tried to take in all the sights at once.

"If you think it smells good, just wait until you try it. I'd eat here every day if I could but Mom won't let us," Zack said.

"That's because she wants you to be able to fit through doors," Cody told him. He picked up one of the menus from the center of the table and slid it to Chase and was about to list off some of the toppings he loved the most when he caught sight of a familiar face coming their way. "Hey, Erin!"

Zack's head whipped around and he saw his favorite server coming their way. He instantly quit slouching, sucked his belly in, and sat up straight against the back of the booth. At the last second, Zack tried to flatten his hair into somewhat less of a mess but settled for sticking his cap back on after deciding it was a hopeless endeavor. Cody saw, smirked, but remained quiet.

"Hey boys," Erin replied as she came to stand in front of their table, "looks like you swapped out your mom for a friend, huh?"

"Yeah, Mom has to work tonight but this is my friend Chase," Cody said and Chase waved.

"Nice to meet you, Chase." Erin took their soda order and retreated to the drink station beside the bar. Zack looked longingly through the crowd as she filled their glasses at the fountain. Cody nudged his friend and gestured to his brother before showing Chase the menu.

"I'm guessing you might need a few minutes to look everything over since you've got a rookie here with you, right?" Erin asked, looking between the boys after she dropped off their sodas.

"Yeah, it all sounds so good that I can't decide. Sorry," Chase answered honestly.

"Not a problem. I'll give you a guys a bit to figure it out."

"Thank you," Zack said and gave her a cheesy smile.

"You're welcome, Zack." She smiled back at him and Zack could feel the warmth of all the blood rushing to his face. Erin tucked her tray under one arm and went to check on another table.

"Just in case you didn't notice, my brother has a giant crush on our server," Cody said with glee. It wasn't often that he got to poke Zack and he loved every second of it.

"I do not!" Zack immediately declared.

"Mmhmm," Cody said mid-sip. "You haven't taken your eyes off of her since you saw her."

Zack knew he'd been caught and didn't try to fight it. "Well, can you really blame me? Erin is...I mean...she's just...wow." He looked between Cody and Chase and saw hints of grins on their face. "Whatever, you guys." Zack shook his head. "She's pretty hot."

Zack had settled down over the next twenty minutes, only slightly blushing when Erin brought a round of refills. He'd leaned against the back of the booth and split his attention between the rest of the restaurant and the other two boys at his table. He wasn't paying all that much attention to what Cody and Chase were saying since most of it seemed to be geeky things, but he'd throw a glance their way every so often when Erin was out of sight and a song he didn't know was playing on the jukebox.

She'd just come by to drop off a stack of napkins and disappeared so Zack turned to see what was going on a few feet away. As he expected, Chase was chattering away about something and Cody was listening. Zack was a split second away from asking what they were talking about when he noticed his brother's face.

Cody had listened to him yammer at great length many times and Zack could tell how much Cody cared by the expressions on his face. Normally they were blank looks, or looks that read _are you seriously not done talking yet?_ , but this was something else entirely. Zack had rarely seen this particular look. Cody looked interested. Almost deeply interested. He tuned out the noise from the restaurant and tried to listen in.

"I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do that report on yet," Zack heard and cocked an eyebrow. That was pretty boring. _Maybe I missed the good part,_ he thought to himself. He scooted a bit closer and listened a bit longer but it didn't really get any better. Just more stuff about school. Cody apparently cared, though. Zack was trying to figure out why they were talking about school on the weekend when Erin and another server arrived with their pies.

"Here we go, guys," she said as she placed one pizza down and turned to grab the second from her help, sliding it in beside the first pizza. "Let me know if you need anything." A chorus of _we will_ s answered her and she backed out of the way.

"They both smell so good that I don't know which one to eat first," Chase confessed as he looked the pizzas over.

"Just do what I always do," Zack told him, "grab a slice of both." He quickly grabbed the metal spatula and loaded his plate. He dug in and gave a saucy thumbs up in approval when Chase filled his plate while Cody only took one piece at a time. _I knew I liked this kid for a reason_ , he thought as he worked his way through a thick slice of the triple pepperoni.

The boys put in almost an hour's worth of work to turn the two giant pizzas into a few lonely slices. Three sets of eyes looked at the leftovers but couldn't do any further damage. "I am so full right now," Chase groaned. He wiped his mouth and dropped the napkin on his plate. He took a drink and then slumped against the back padding and burped.

"Sounds like you just made a little more room," Zack said while he nibbled on a bit of crust.

"Ugh, no. I can barely move now. One more bite and I might explode."

"I'm with you, Chase," Cody echoed.

"Same. And I'm ready for a nap. See if you can't get us a box while I go get rid of some Dr. Pepper," Zack said as he scooted out of the booth and stretched.

"Your wish is my command, Your Highness," Cody quipped and Zack threw a wadded up napkin at him.

Hoping to run into Erin on his way, Zack took his time waddling back toward the restrooms but it wasn't meant to be. She was busy talking to a table but did see him and smiled. _Good enough!_ After what seemed like five minutes standing in front of the urinal, he washed up and headed back to the table.

Sometime during his absence, Cody had collapsed back beside his friend and Zack wondered if he needed to talk to his brother about personal space. He wasn't quite sitting on Chase but he was close enough so that their shoulders were rubbing as Zack stood in front of the booth. He looked very comfortable. "You two aren't asleep yet, are you?"

"No," Cody replied as he shifted to a slightly more respectable distance, "Chase was showing me a video and then I got too lazy to move.

"It's a puppy eating a lemon. Want to see it?" Chase offered Zack his phone.

"Maybe later," Zack laughed. "Right now I'm-"

"Here you go, Zack." He found himself whirling around and accepting a styrofoam box from Erin. "You guys have fun tonight and I'll see you later. Stay warm!" She playfully pinched Zack's cheek.

"Okay, thanks," Zack said dreamily as she walked away.

"Speaking of puppies," Chase snickered.

Cody joined his friend with a mocking falsetto. "Oh, Erin, you're so beautiful, so hot..."

"She is! I'd belly crawl naked through five miles of broken glass just to-"

"Yeah, I don't think we need to hear any more of that," Cody interrupted as he started loading the pizza into the box. He and Chase shared a laugh as he shut the lid. Zack rolled his eyes as they geared up for the trek back to the hotel. Still giggling between themselves, Cody and Chase stepped outside into the weather with Zack close behind.

"I'm surprised you didn't try to leave Erin your number again," Cody joked once they'd returned to the suite.

"Well, as much as I hate to admit it, I kind of figure that if she hasn't called by now, she probably isn't going to," Zack conceded. He pulled his coat off and tossed it to Cody and Cody begrudgingly hung it up next to his own.

"I can't imagine why she wouldn't. It's not like she's almost twice our age or anything."

"Her loss," Zack replied as he sank onto the couch with one arm hanging off the side and the other across his full stomach. He heard the other boys going back to their game as he fumbled for the remote. A quick nap was definitely in his future but he didn't want to drift off to sleep listening to them talk about those little green dynamite monsters. Zack turned the television on and felt his eyes begin to get heavy almost as soon as he settled on a channel.

He didn't sleep long, maybe half an hour at the most, but it was just enough. Zack awoke refreshed and quite thirsty. He wandered into the kitchen and pulled the orange juice out and readied himself for a scolding from his brother. Zack could already hear it in his head, "don't you dare drink right from the carton!" but it didn't come. He took a sip and looked over at the table to see what had distracted Cody enough to not notice.

Nothing. They were still playing their game but Zack watched Cody's eyes repeatedly drift over to his friend and stay there for a few seconds before flashing back to his own screen. _Does Chase have a big zit I didn't see or something? He must, right? Why else would Cody spend so much time looking at him?_ Zack wondered as he took another sip. He watched Cody steal glances for another minute and was about to walk over and check for himself when he realized he'd seen that kind of look before. _That's the same way Mom looks at George Clooney. What's up with that?_ Zack wondered until realization struck him mid-gulp.

His eyes widened in surprise and he forgot how to swallow. Almost an entire mouthful of juice went down either the wrong pipe or the front of his shirt and arms. His coughing fit startled the other two and Cody looked up. "Are you choking?" Cody asked, getting partially out of his chair. Zack shook his head negatively and waved Cody off as he hacked away.

"Jeez, Zack are you okay?" Chase asked him once the coughs began to dwindle.

"Yeah," Zack answered when he could finally draw a breath. "I'm good. Couldn't remember how to drink for a second there." He opened the refrigerator and shoved the carton back on the shelf.

"That's why you don't drink from the container and use a glass," Cody told him. There it was.

Zack lifted the hem of his t-shirt away from his waist and looked down at the mess. "Gross," he mumbled and starting pulling it over his head.

"You need to rinse it off before you drop it in the hamper so it doesn't get super nasty before Mom does laundry again."

"I need to rinse me off," Zack said as he traced a line through the already-tacky remains of the juice on his chest. "Yuck," he muttered when he noticed parts of the waistband of his underwear had turned orange as well.

"It's in your hair now, too," Chase pointed out.

"Absolutely fantastic." He laid the soggy shirt on a shoulder and walked past Cody and Chase. "I'm just going to hop in the shower."

"See you in two hours," Cody laughed.

"Ha ha," Zack replied and closed the bathroom door. He looked at the sink and then the tub before tossing the shirt in the tub, figuring that it was the lazier of the two ways to rinse it. Once the water was on and warm, Zack stripped off and stepped under the spray.

 _George Clooney!_ his mind repeated as the smell of oranges was rinsed away. As he thought about it, Zack realized this was far from the first time he'd seen that look from his brother. There was that boy at the DMV that Cody couldn't stop looking at until Mom finally got her number called and her license renewed. There was a boy at the bowling alley when they'd went to Glow Bowl one time and Cody had seemed fascinated by him. There was the boy behind the counter at Burger King. Cody had blushed and stuttered while trying to give him his order.

Another dozen or so examples from the last year poured through Zack's mind as he swirled his shirt around the drain with his toes. They all featured Cody giving fleeting and stealthy glances when he didn't think anyone else was looking. He hadn't ever connected the dots before but they made a rather compelling picture now that he did.

That picture was a little blurry but Zack could still make out what it likely was. Adding how he'd seen his brother look at Chase that night into the mix was like wiping a hand across a fogged up window. He could see it clearly now. "Oh," he said quietly into the spray.


End file.
